In Another World
by Thorne Lockehart
Summary: Does it have to be this hard? Jax/OC Rating will change
1. Chapter 1: Over and Over Again

_**A/N: So I'm working on this story along with "Grace Under Fire" and it's going to be a bit different! I hope everyone enjoys it and enjoys my little brain child. **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Sons of Anarchy. Everything you recognize is owned by Kurt Sutter and the FX gang.**_

_**Summary: "She often said Charming looked its best in her rear-view mirror, but when a personal problem brings her home, will she get sucked back in?"**_

* * *

_Afterthoughts of past storms weathered before  
Battle scars, some are seen and some are not  
Oh no! Oh no! I watched the clouds roll in  
Oh no! Oh no! It's happening again  
I'll be watching, waiting, dreadful shaking  
Will the storm pass over us today?  
Will the lightning strike our sins away?_

_Atreyu — Storm To Pass_

* * *

There wasn't much to be said about Charming, California. It was a dust bowl town stuck in the old days and everything looked the same, save for a fresh coat of paint on the exterior of a few businesses. The stoplight on Main Street still malfunctioned, yet a traffic cam sat proudly mounted at the top. It was still in the 90's with no sign of cooling down, despite the late September weather.

Her fingers gripped the worn leather steering wheel, her thumbs drumming out the beat to the country song crooning through the stereo. The perks of Charming never changing was that Rhiannon could find her way through the small town if she was blind. The smell of French fry grease filled the air as she turned the corner. Hanna's Diner. If she went a few blocks down and looked to her left, she'd see Teller-Morrow before finding her Uncle Emmett's house next road over.

Rhiannon still wasn't prepared to see the now-empty house. She wasn't ready to pack up all his possessions, sell his old truck and Mercedes, and read his will to their family. She wasn't ready to set foot through that threshold and smell old books and dryer sheets or to face the silence instead of hearing the croon of the Rat Pack. Rhiannon and her siblings had slept over when her mother was too exhausted from working fourteen hours a day as a nurse to support five kids or her deadbeat father was on a bender and couldn't hold down a job as a fry cook or janitor. A heart attack left her without the man she'd hoped would walk her down the aisle on her wedding day.

She was still the only Westmoreland in her generation to go to college, let alone actually have a career. Her older brother Jude and sister Lucy scattered throughout the county after barely squeaking by in high school. Her younger brother Max dropped out after impregnating his high school girlfriend and now worked ten hours a day at the lumber yard. Her younger sister Diane had gotten hooked up with the wrong crowd and ended up in her third round of rehab. It was startling to see what kind of life Rhiannon could have led if she'd stayed in Charming. Accessory to a crime as a minor was bad enough. Her file was now clean, but she still worried that someone could unseal her juvenile record and see _Known affiliates: Sons of Anarchy _on her ledger.

The sound of grinding coming from the front of her car caught her attention and Rhiannon threw the truck in park. She gathered her chestnut hair off the back of her neck into a high, albeit messy ponytail and cut the engine to give it a chance to cool down.

_I'll change my water pump when I get back to SF, _she had continuously told herself. _It'll be fine. It'll last me._

Procrastination was the _devil._ And now it was likely she had to shell out five hundred dollars for a replacement part without factoring in the cost of labor. The question was, did she want to get to her uncle's or face down SAMCRO? The last time she had seen her ex-boyfriend, she'd told him she was leaving Charming and never looking back and for the most part, she'd kept that promise. Charming was Jax's lifeblood.

And Teller-Morrow was likely where he still worked.

Did she want to avoid her ex-boyfriend's family more than she wanted to avoid her late uncle's house? The decision was seemingly made for her when she heard a knock on the window and she looked up to see some scruffy-looking kid standing on the sidewalk. Rhiannon pushed the window button to lower it a few inches.

"Hey, sorry. I'm trying to..." _Wow, _she couldn't even lie. "Sorry. I'll move." Her gaze dropped to the Teller-Morrow patch on his coveralls and briefly, she was taken back to high school.

"I was gonna see if you needed any help pushing this anywhere. If it's acting up, you might not want to drive it. I work just there," he offered, pointing to the Teller-Morrow driveway. Rhiannon stifled a chuckle at his words.

_Baby, I grew up here, _she wanted to say, but he wouldn't know her. Instead, she put the car in neutral and pulled herself out.

For once, she thanked God she hadn't opted for her more professional wear, instead opting for jeans and sneakers. "Want me to help push or steer?" she asked, shrugging out of the sapphire-blue flannel to tie it around her slim waist. With the hot weather of Charming, it had been idiotic to wear a flannel shirt. She swiped her hand along her forehead to wipe the sweat off.

"Steer. I mean, you're a girl and I can't let you...push," the kid stammered. "I mean, you're like...sixteen. Where are your parents?"

"My daddy's probably passed out, sleeping off a bender and my mom's probably at her third or fourth shift. I'm also way older than sixteen, but you just might be my new favorite person." With that, she perched carefully in the driver's seat.

* * *

Between the warehouse blowing up, the repossessions, the law breathing down his neck, and now Wendy's overdose, Jax couldn't catch a goddamn break. To make matters worse, the goddamn prospect was missing in action. He swore under his breath as he recognized Emmett Westmoreland's old Ram parked in one of the bays. "Hey, Juice. Where the hell is Half-Sack?"

The death of Emmett Westmoreland was one Charming took hard. The old man had been Charming's legacy; he took in his deadbeat brother's kids and anyone else who came along. If it hadn't been for him, it was likely all five kids would have ended up as bad off as their addict of a father.

"He's trying to mount Emmett's niece. Water pump on the Ram went to shit and he's trying to get a bone thrown his way."

Lucy was in Lodi. Diane was in rehab in Oakland. That only left Rhiannon.

"Jesus Christ," Jax muttered under his breath. The last thing he needed on top of it was seeing Rhiannon Westmoreland. On a _good _day, the last thing he needed to see was Rhiannon. He should have figured Emmett's death would bring her back to town. Yet the last thing Jax wanted to see was the proof that Charming meant nothing to her.

Fuck it. He needed to deal with _her _before someone else did.

"Where are they, Juice?"


	2. Chapter 2: Happily N'Ever After

_You look as good as the day I met you  
I forget just why I left you  
I was insane_

_Chainsmokers ft. Halsey — Closer_

* * *

It didn't matter how much time had passed since Jax saw Rhiannon, he still felt that punch to the stomach he felt from the moment he locked eyes on her. The way her long eyelashes framed those stunning ice-blue eyes. The way the corner of her full lips tilted upwards, smiling as though she had a secret. The freckles that always bled through no matter how much concealer she tried to use to cover them up. When Jax was fourteen, he'd been certain Rhiannon Westmoreland was the prettiest girl he had ever laid eyes on. And he'd done stupid things in his desperate attempt to get that pretty smile aimed his way, especially if she crinkled her nose just right if something wasn't quite funny enough to laugh.

Seeing her now felt like a punch to the stomach. In some ways, she looked different. Her face thinned and matured, her body filled out and curved in the right places. Yet in other ways, she still looked like the same girl he'd been in love with when he was a teenager. That damned half-smile aimed in Half-Sack's direction told him she still lurked in there somewhere, law degree be damned.

Her only sin had been asking him to follow her when she went to Stanford, that it wasn't too late for him to graduate and he had a chance to do better than Clay and Gemma, that he didn't need the club. At least, that was the only one that the club knew of. If Gemma saw her now, it was likely she'd blow a gasket. Juice likely already told Clay she was there and the message would get passed on and so forth. While Jax didn't want to see Rhiannon, he was the best case scenario.

That was, until she moved out to the waiting area and left Jax alone with Half-Sack.

Eleven years later and he still wanted to hook his fingers in those belt loops and kiss her. He could still hear the little sound she made when he kissed her neck and the soft sigh when his lips found the hollow of her throat.

"No one ever said Emmett's other niece was so _hot_," Half-Sack commented. "Goddamn."

Jax barked out a single, humorless laugh. "Rhiannon Westmoreland."

"Think she'll go for the one nut?"

"You gotta work with a full load to ride that train, Sack. And then some." With that, he pushed open the door from the garage to the office where Rhiannon sat in one of the worn cloth chairs, a dated magazine across her lap. It was _familiar._ The door banging didn't even make her flinch, yet she lifted her head and Jax was sucker-punched in the stomach once more when those big blue eyes fixated on him. "I figured I was better than Clay or Gemma."

"Hi," she breathed, blinking in surprise. The magazine was flipped shut and she stood up. Jax could see the thoughts racing in her mind almost as if she stamped them to her forehead. "It's, uh...been a while."

"Here for Emmett, right?"

She nodded, her tongue sweeping over her bottom lip. "Yeah, I inherited the truck. I'm probably going to give it to Jude because his car keeps breaking down and I have my car at my mom's house," she replied. "I just need to get that water pump fixed."

Jax's gaze shifted to where that old pickup sat in the bay and part of him wanted to keep that old truck just for the memories. "Lot of memories in that old truck," he commented. The air mattress they used to throw in the pickup bed had been where they had lost their virginity to each other still sat in his closet in the clubhouse. It was full of holes and couldn't hold air anymore, yet he couldn't bring himself to throw it out. The middle seat was the first time he had ever gotten to second base.

Judging by the flush that colored her cheeks, she thought of the same thing. "We were just kids back then. Arrogant enough to think that we were different because it was us and we weren't our parents," she mused. Yet she was the one who was different than the girl whose parents were washed-up musicians and were bitter about their big dreams being interrupted by their kids. And Jax had so very nearly been the one to put forward that self-fulfilling prophecy on her part. "I, uh, heard about your son. I hope he's okay. I was at the hospital picking up the death certificate for Uncle Emmett and signing some release forms and I heard from June Tillman from math."

"Thanks. He's a tough kid," Jax submitted and it was then that he spotted Gemma. _Shit._ "You got a number so I can call you for the truck?"

Her blue eyes stretched wide and her head ducked, but Gemma was likely to have already seen her. "Shit. Yes. I've got a card, but it's in the truck." She fumbled in her pockets before pulling out a single card. Bone-white, textured, with block gold lettering.

**_Rhiannon Westmoreland, Esq. _**

A small number typed out in the bottom with several other numbers. "Rhiannon Westmoreland, Esquire. You're legit now," he commented and she swatted his shoulder with a roll of her eyes.

"Fuck off, Teller. Just tell me when I can pick up my uncle's truck so I can get out of here and put this town in my rear-view," she snorted.

Eleven years later and he still loved the view of her walking away from him.

* * *

The rumor mill in Charming was even worse than a small town high school. Rhiannon had hoped to get the truck in before Gemma had seen her, but it was seemingly too much to ask from any higher power. She wasn't interested in seeing half the town while she had sixty thousand things to do and only precious few days to do so. Seeing Jax had rattled her, whether or not she wanted to admit it.

Eleven years later, he still sent that thrill down her spine and she was suddenly that arrogant teenage girl he fooled around with in the back of her uncle's truck on an unstable air mattress, the same girl that chased the sun on the back of his bike with her arms around his waist. Love had only gotten them so far and now Rhiannon was on solid ground.

"He's got too much to deal with without you in town," Gemma informed her, her fingers curled around Rhiannon's bicep. "I don't give a shit what you're here for, you'd better stay away from him."

"I can't control my _dead _uncle's truck breaking down, you egomaniac," Rhiannon spat as she yanked her arm from her grip. "I don't want to be here anymore than you want me to be."

Whatever this little baby was, judging by Gemma's reaction, he was a replacement for Thomas. Yet Rhiannon wasn't so cruel as to point that out, no matter what her differences were with her. There was so much she could throw in her face that she simply bit back but voiced with a steely glare through narrowed eyes.

"Trust me, as soon as I take care of what no one else wants to take care of, I'm getting the fuck out of here. Jax is a grown man and he's someone I was friends with before all this bullshit. Don't take your anger out on me, Gemma. You got what you wanted: your son back and me the hell out of Charming. It'd be nice if you didn't berate me when I have too much to deal with."

With that, she turned to walk to the house. Rhiannon Monroe Westmoreland would be _damned _if she let Gemma see her cry.


	3. Chapter 3: God Knows I Tried

_Wrap me in a bolt of lightning  
Send me on my way still smiling  
Maybe that's the way I should go  
Straight into the mouth of the unknown  
I left the spare key on the table  
I never really thought I'd be able  
To say I merely visit on the weekends  
I lost my whole life and a dear friend_

_Shinedown — Call Me_

* * *

Emmett Westmoreland's house looked like it expected him home that evening. Everything had a thin layer of dust, yet nothing was out of place. It still smelled like old books and dryer sheets. The front floorboard in the entryway still creaked when she stepped down on to it. There was a stillness to the air, a reminder this wasn't Rhiannon's home anymore. She passed by the living room where she spotted the capsized ottoman. No doubt it had knocked over in his attempt to get to the phone.

It didn't feel like home because she didn't hear the country music on low from the radio in the study. She missed the gravelly voice of her uncle yelling his location from the other side of the house. Her fingers ruffled the red fur of the fat old cat she'd insisted he kept while she was gone. O'Malley.

_Oh, I missed you, O'Malley_, she thought fondly as she scratched under his chin. Someone kept him up, most likely Max. There was no smell of a litter box lingering in the air. He had been a mouthy little runt ready to fight when she found him in the trash all those years ago. Now he was a grumpy old man that had been Emmett's perfect companion. His once glossy ginger coat dulled but brilliant green eyes still stared back at her.

Her bedroom she'd shared with Lucy and Diane looked exactly the same as when she'd left it. A set of bunk beds against the wall, a twin roll-away bed in the middle of the room. Three dressers, though Rhiannon and Lucy often fought over clothes. It was no wonder that Emmett had never married; no prospective wife would want to touch this mess with a ten-foot pole: five kids he more or less raised for his deadbeat brother while their mother worked herself into the ground to pay off his debts and help support them. There was never a bad word spoken about Michael, but Rhiannon could smell the booze on his breath or see the sweat on his face when he bothered to show up for school functions. Edward and Maxine had stepped up to help as well. Rhiannon's first job had been on Edward's ranch a half hour north of Charming, anything for the chance to ride his horses.

Part of her couldn't help but feel guilty she hadn't been there for Diane and Max when Michael got visitation after she had graduated high school. Diane was only twenty-one and on her third stint in rehab for drug addiction and alcoholism. The beds were still neatly made with faded pink quilts, crisp white sheets. Pictures of them growing up scattered through the small room. Rhiannon at the age of fifteen in a Guns N' Roses T-shirt on the back of a horse with her arms spread wide with a seven-year old Diane clinging to the horn with blue eyes wide in terror. One of Diane on her tenth birthday in an MTV T-shirt and a cake with roses sitting in front of her. Lucy on her sweet sixteen with a thirteen year old Rhiannon and a twelve-year old Max in front of her, his hair stuck up in various states of disarray. Rhiannon's undergraduate ceremony from ceremony.

Lucy had moved out the day after her eighteenth birthday to live with her boyfriend...somewhere. Last Rhiannon had heard, they were happily married with three kids and her older sister worked as a restaurant manager for a bar and grill in Stockton. Jude worked as a law enforcement officer somewhere in Nevada with his wife and two kids. Rhiannon hadn't seen either of them since her undergrad ceremony in Stanford.

_You were always Emmett's favorite, _Diane had accused her that day. _Must be nice to get a free ride to college when the rest of us will never get that chance._

Rhiannon opened the middle dresser's top drawer, the beaten-up teal paint coming off on to her hands to pull out the beaten-up Vans box. Polaroids from her high school years scattered inside. Some were self-taken pictures with Avery and Dakota, most of them were with Jax. All were taken within a two-year period. Her favorite was the one on his first bike, the same one he had scraped and saved up for years to own.

_Come on, darlin'. Come with me on my first ride._

Girls her age had wanted the fairy tale with the prince, yet she had her bad boy on the Harley.

She needed to get everyone together to clean out the old place before whoever got the house could move in. Part of her hoped that it was Max. Logically, it would be. Rhiannon would get the collection of books, the mahogany wooden desk that sat in his office. She pulled the photos out of the shoe box. Perhaps Jax would want the one of his Harley as some memento.

_**Emmett Westmoreland, Esq. **_still sat on the outside of the door back when he worked from home.

_Choosing yourself isn't selfish, it's survival._

The front door opened and the alarm system beeped. Rhiannon shut the dresser drawer quickly and made her way to the front of the house, careful to avoid any squeaky floorboards.

(Months of sneaking out as a teenager finally paid off.)

It wasn't until she was halfway down the hall that it occurred to her then that she didn't have any form of defense against an intruder except her car keys in her pocket. Her fingers groped along empty wall to find any form of object to use as a weapon. A stray umbrella or even a club like in the movies, but Emmett kept an immaculate house with the help of a cleaner and no such things could be found. The jingling of keys would alert the intruder if she pulled them out now.

"Hello?" a feminine voice called out into the stillness and Rhiannon slumped her back against the wall, hand stealing over her thundering heart to quiet it. Her mother.

"It's just me, Mom. I was coming by to pick up Uncle Emmett's testament so I could start planning the funeral," she replied, poking her head around the corner to look for her. The weight of the world pressed on Nina Westmoreland's shoulders, yet she still looked happy to see her. Chestnut brown hair was back in a messy ponytail and she was dressed in garnet-red scrubs. If anyone ever said Rhiannon resembled her mother, she would take it as the highest of compliments. "I'm, uh, really glad you're here."

Hot tears she hadn't expected pricked the backs of her eyes and her hands rested on her hips. Wordlessly, Nina drew Rhiannon into her arms and she broke down. Much like she had the night before she left, every time she came home, the night of the accident senior year. When she couldn't sure if she was upset, tired, thirsty, or in emotional overload. Sometimes, she just needed her mother.


	4. Chapter 4: Fun Town

**This chapter contains mentions of abortion and due to request, I'm delving a little more into their past! At some point, I fully plan on doing a full flashback chapter. And this is a bit of a filler chapter to get canon moving.**

**And, for anyone wondering, I use Merritt Patterson's looks as inspo for Rhiannon and Olivia Wilde for Lucy (and yes, I see the irony considering Olivia and Charlie were love interests in Deadfall LOL)**

* * *

_I know where you hide: alone in your car  
Know all of the things that make you who you are  
I know that goodbye means nothing at all  
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she __falls_

_Maroon Five — She Will Be Loved_

* * *

Even being on leave, Rhiannon had to deal with one disaster after another. It felt like she'd been glued to her phone since rolling out of bed at six in the morning. Associates couldn't seem to get their heads out of their collective asses and do their jobs. Clients couldn't seem to quit harassing interns and on top of planning a funeral and a memorial, she had to deal with them.

"Listen, I don't give a good goddamn _what _you have to do, Scott. I have too much shit to do today. You need to settle with these plaintiffs and grow a pair of balls or else they'll take the company we represent for everything we've got. If you're going to be a part of this firm, you need to learn how to prep for this shit because it's literally in your job description. If you have a problem, call Wheeler. I'm getting ready to bury my uncle and I don't need to deal with your inability to do a simple task. Now. Unless you have a fucking emergency, kindly do not darken my caller ID with your bullshit," she snapped before hanging up her phone. Litigation prep was something she'd learned how to do her first year of law school. Part of her wondered if the fresh-faced graduate was banging one of the partners.

On top of it all, she stood inside Teller-Morrow while waiting for the truck to be finished while she cursed out the associate on the phone.

"Jesus, I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that shit."

Jax.

Rhiannon's lips curved into a small smile at his words and she shoved the cellphone into the back pocket of her red jeans. "Then I'd guess you'd better not piss me off, huh?" Jax Teller hadn't changed much since they were eighteen. He'd grown out stubble, grown out his hair a bit, added a few tattoos. But Rhiannon still recognized that wild spark in his blue eyes. Somewhere deep in that VP bravado was the same guy who used to race her to the truck in order to open the door for her. But she still felt that flush on her neck when he looked at her, the same look that told her exactly what he was thinking. The cocky smirk confirmed it, along with that infuriatingly attractive way he leaned against the door jamb between the office and hangar. "So, is the truck ready?"

Rhiannon could practically feel the weight of his gaze on her and suddenly, she was the same teenage girl she was back then. A laugh bubbled in her chest, but she held it back.

"Hot shit lawyer can't stand a little stare down? How in the hell did you ever pass?" he teased and her eyes rolled skyward.

_I can't focus with you looking at me like that, _she wanted to say.

"I'm a little off my game today, Teller. Don't you have other customers to sweet talk or are they not as pretty as me?" she returned instead. No, _he _knocked her off her game. Rhiannon could prepare for any last-minute mediation or preparation to work in tandem with Human Resources, but evidently, she couldn't prepare herself to see Jax. She could do her best to shut the door to her sordid past, but seeing him had that metaphorical door nearly flying off its hinges. If they'd stuck to their original plan, she wouldn't have left, but the best laid plans of mice and men often went awry. There was no greater example of life not being fair than right there in the walls of Teller-Morrow. All the little _what ifs _buzzed around in her head.

_What if I'd gone to school in Oakland instead of Stanford? What if I'd taken Emmett's offer instead of Simmons'? What if I hadn't gone to Oakland that night? Would we have gotten married?_

Health care law was almost as lucrative as criminal defense, but Rhiannon sprang for the financial security of corporate law that all but paid off her student loans, given her a fully-furnished apartment without roommates (albeit it was a small one-bedroom), and was almost debt-free before thirty. It cost her the man standing before her and the domino-like consequences turned her into someone she hadn't wanted to. The kind of someone who got engaged to some guy she barely knew and was actually _surprised _when her ATF fiance became the kind of man she wanted to leave at the altar.

"The truck's almost ready. By the time you fill out the paperwork, you should be good to go."

Maybe someday she could look at him without feeling sad.

"If you guys can make it to the memorial on Sunday, you're more than welcome," she commented. Her family wouldn't protest to anyone's presence but Jax's, but he had every right to be there. Michael would bitch about him showing up. Gemma would bitch until Rhiannon left Charming in the rear-view. She quickly scrawled out her signature and set the blue pen back on the counter.

"I'll let the club know."

Their little exchange was coming to an end and it was time for her to go. She had until Monday to get it all out of her system and go home.

* * *

At the repeated request (pestering) of her nieces and nephews, Rhiannon found herself taking a break from funeral-planning and litigation to enjoy a family outing at Fun Town. Everyone seemed to scatter all over the place, a true Westmoreland reunion. The lemonade still tasted as sour as she remembered, the food was still as gross and chewy. It was more or less a parking lot fair, but she still loved it. The San Joaquin County Fair in Stockton had been her favorite from the time she was little, but she couldn't resist the pull of a spin-out cups or the dragon coaster. The best time to be there was at night when the lights were the brightest, but with seven kids ranging wildly in age, it wasn't possible.

"Do you remember the last time we were here?" Lucy asked, her arm hooked into Rhiannon's. It had been a good three years since she'd even _seen_ her older sister, let alone actually spent some time with her, but now it felt like no time had passed at all. Lucy Westmoreland-Montgomery was someone who inherited their mother's genes. Rhiannon would always be envious of how her sister looked, how her vivid blue eyes were never rimmed with dark circles or puffy from lack of sleep, or how her glossy dark hair always looked sleek and stylish. Lucy still looked like she was in her early twenties, no matter how old her kids were. She still looked effortlessly chic in a pair of boyfriend jeans and a faded grey T-shirt that fit snugly to her athletic frame. The restaurant was booming, she was becoming a bar manager. The kids were thriving. Everything seemed great.

"I think I was thirteen, so you would have been fifteen or sixteen. Remember that really fucking creepy clown that kept trying to lure me away from you?" Rhiannon pulled a face at the memory as she spoke. It had justified a proper fear of clowns, in case Jude's fascination with all things Stephen King-related hadn't done it for her before with _IT. _"I hope that old jerk-off's gone. He had that really gross vibe on him."

"I remember that. I don't think Jude let you out of his sight until Mom and Dad got here," Lucy recalled before nudging Rhiannon. "Now, come on. Please tell me you've been seeing someone since that fiasco of a wedding where you disappeared for two weeks to Mexico. Sans groom, might I add. Don't be one of those Lifetime women that swear they're going to focus on their career. You got the hell away from our bullshit for a reason, but come on."

Of course Rhiannon couldn't go a single reunion without remembering she had almost married a fed. Shane Abernathy had been handsome, intelligent, and well-read, but underneath, he'd been controlling, manipulative, and overbearing. He'd controlled everything from what books she read to every calorie she consumed. Rhiannon had lost fifteen pounds in a bid to please him and had looked like a skeleton in her wedding dress. When she had actually eaten a full meal for the first time in two months, it was then that she realized she had to leave. Her entire life would have turned into maintaining an image instead of an actual partnership. Instead of leaving a note, even, she simply changed the name of the other plane ticket to her college best friend's and the two took an impromptu girls' trip to Mexico.

The last she'd heard from a mutual friend, he started working for ATF and moved to Nevada.

"Of course I'm focusing on my career. I'm making serious _bank_ for me and I'm only going to go up. I have a fully furnished apartment with a semi-nice view that is courtesy of my first-choice firm, I am completely debt-free, I love what I do. I don't have roommates. Like...if I was me in a Danielle Steele novel, I'd hate me. I'm actually really, really happy. And best of all, I don't have some man who wants me to be a pretty little thing in designer clothes on his arm," Rhiannon defended. Long walk for a short drink of water in defending her lifestyle, but she had grown tired of feeling guilty for her hard work paying off. "I'm not making peak money, but at least I don't have everyone staring at me and knowing every stupid thing I did when I was a teenager. They don't associate me with the girl who got arrested alongside her biker boyfriend and with a sealed juvie record. Or the girl who ruined her plan A future by getting knocked up by her biker boyfriend."

Lucy remained quiet, but her arm tightened just that little bit on Rhiannon's. Only their side of the family knew what Rhiannon and Jax were doing in Oakland the night of the accident. Gemma would have blown a gasket. "Do you ever think about what your life would have been like if you hadn't gone through with it?" she asked quietly. Settling down just out of high school and having kids immediately after had worked for Lucy.

"All the time," Rhiannon confessed, but she knew the answer. She could have been resentful and wondering _what if _for the life she had then, but at least she would have had that little family she'd made and she would have _known _for sure. "But I love what I do. I mean, I'm not totally happy on settling some of the cases when the CEO is a lech, but I love watching the light go out in people's eyes."

The sound of someone yelling caught her attention and she spotted Karen Oswald and Gemma. While the latter would have made her nervous, it was the look of fear on the former that had Rhiannon approaching them.

"Tristen Oswald's missing. We're getting people together to go look for her. We just finished checking the restrooms," Gemma explained, but Rhiannon felt that icy prick on her spine. The woods. Anything could happen in those woods. She cast a glance her sister's way and saw her stiffen.

Maggie was Tristen's age. So was Trixie, Jude's daughter.

"Luce, go check on Maggie. Make sure she's good. I'll team up with someone and help them look, I'll keep you updated." Thank _God _she kept flashlights in her Charger. "I have some flashlights to lend, if anyone needs them."

For a brief moment, she let the memorial go on the back burner. It didn't matter she'd be up for the remainder of the night to get everything ready or that the cops could easily make her life difficult, depending on who interviewed her. If it was Hale, she could expect to linger in town a few more days.

It was nearly dawn when she finally got into bed.


	5. Chapter 5: A Note From the Author

Hey, guys! This isn't a chapter, per se, but I've been asked for signs of life/that this story is still moving forward and it is! I've been suffering from writer's block and dealing with a move from one state to another. Add that on top of a wedding, family things and it's a cocktail for a _very _busy writer. This pandemic has not been easy on anyone, but I hope to have a chapter up soon! I have one almost half-done, but it needs editing. I also sort of shot myself in the foot by following season 1 canon with Fun Town to start out. It's a _very _dark episode, on top of balancing that with a funeral and memorial on top of it.

But! I'm also working on a flashback chapter or two, if there is any interest in that. Feel free to toss your two cents into the reviews and if anyone wants to chat/has any other questions, please feel free to DM me! I love talking to people.


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